January 12, 1925 – New York City

On a cold January morning, Peter O’Day, the archbishop of New York, abruptly awoke from a vivid nightmare of the Spanish-American war to the sound of urgent knocking on his bedroom door. No stranger to odd-hour visits by his alter boys, he retrieved the telegram on the other side of the door, excitement growing with each word he read.

HAVE INFORMATION CONCERNING CARLYE EXPEDITION STOP NEED RELIABLE INVESTIGATIVE TEAM STOP ARRIVED JANUARY 15 STOP SIGNED JACKSON ELIAS

Excited that Jackson Elias was finally back in town, Peter rushed to the Yellow King to retrieve his friends:

• Riley Baxter, the recently unemployed commercial fisherman.
• Marv “Marv-o” O’Murphy, the train engineer.
• Eugene “Gene” Wright, the cobbler.

The company of friends had met and grown close over years of drinking at the speakeasy. They traded stories and shared jokes and comforted miseries: Riley’s daughter who had passed away too young; Gene’s memories of his wife and the cobbler shop that was now his real home; Marvo’s attempts to hide his growing gambling debt from his young wife Millie; Peter’s attention to his drunk friend, Father Jacob, that had first led him to the Speakeasy all those years ago.

The fifth member of their company had of course been Jackson Elias, the famed researcher and author of religious cults. His attendance to the Yellow King was infrequent due to his constant travels, but his grotesque and exhilarating stories of death cults on his return always made the long absences worth it.

Eager to see Jackson and understanding his telegram as a request for assistance on his next project, the company of friends spent the next few days reacquainting themselves on the details Carlye expedition. Peter, putting his love of libraries to good use, obtained copies of old newspaper fragments and the group studied them over whiskey and gin at the Yellow King.

The expedition, whose ultimate purpose in Egypt was never discovered, had left New York in 1919 with five principal members:

• Roger Caryle, the NY playboy and leader of the expedition
• Sir Aubrey Penhew, the renowned Egyptologist and assistant leader
• Dr. Robert Huston, a Freudian psychologist
• Hypatia Masters, a photographer
• Jack Brady, the general factotum of the group

After a brief stop in London at the Penhew Foundation, the expedition had continued to Egypt , where it was rumored – though denied by Sir Aubrey – that the expedition had discovered clues to the legendary lost mines of King Solomon. Shortly thereafter, the expedition elected to take a “well-earned rest” in East Africa. But the expedition disappeared somewhere outside of Nairobi, prompting Roger Caryle’s younger sister Erica to  travel to Africa to find her brother.

Unfortunately, all that was ultimately found were the brutally murdered remains of the dozens of expedition members, apparently massacred by hostile Nandi tribesmen. The tribesmen were convicted and hung, and Erica returned to New York, the tragic conclusion to the expedition discovered.

Curiously, however, the bodies of the five principal members of the expedition were never found among the massacred dead….